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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 











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RROOniNG THAT TH01H--Iir. WHICH WAS HKK JOY AND TROirm.K 



THE SECRET WAY 



A LOST TALE OF MILETUS 



^^g^Sg^^S^ 



BY 



EDWARD BULWER LYTTON 



ILLUSTRATED BY F. O. SJL4LL 




BOSTON 

D. LOTIIROP COMPANY 

WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELD 






COFYRIGHT, 1889 

D. Ldthkoi" Company. 




5 -J Brooding that thonglit, whicli was her joy and troul)le Frpiiti. 



Shivered, and, parting, round him wrapt his mantle 



An imaire comes l:)efore me in a dream 



. . . . in wrath against the stars 
''Tlie Mage resoiight his tower 

. . . . sole king on that plain, reigned death 

^ Could doom no altars at whose foot she prayed 



The traitor stood before Zariadt 



On bended knees sunk down 





W 3 




ARGUMENT 



The very strikiny legend which suggests the following poem is 
found in Athenaeus, Book XIII. CiiAi". xxxv. It is there given as a 
quotation from the " History of Alexander, by Chares of Mitylene." 
The author adds, that " the story is often told by the barbarians who 
dwell in Asia, and is exceedingly admired ; and they have painted 
representations of the story in their temples and palaces, and also in 
their private houses." In constructing the plot of the poem, I have 
made some variations in incident and denoiievieitt from the meager 
outlines of the old romance preserved in Athenseus, with a view of 
heightening the interest which springs from the groundwork of the 
legend. I should add that the name of the Scythian king's daughter 
is changed from fklatis — which, for narrative purpose, a little too 
nearly resembles that of her father, Omartes — to Argiope- a name 
more Hellenic, it is true, but it may be reasonably doubted whether 
that of Odatis be more genuinely Scythian. For the sake of euphony, 
the name of the Persian Prince is softened from Zariadres to Zariades. 
This personage is said by the author whom Athenaeus quotes to have 
been the brother of Ilystaspes, and to have held dominion over the 
country from above the Caspian Gates to the river Tanais (the 
modern Don). Although the hero of the legend would have been, 
as described, of purely Persian origin (a royal Achjemenian), and the 
people subjected to him would not have belonged to Media proper, 
in the poem he is sometimes called the Mede and his people Medes, 
according to a usage sufficiently common among Greek writers when 
speaking generally of the rulers and people of the great Persian 
Empire. It may scarcely be worth while to observe that though in 
subsequent tales where the Hellenic deities are more or less promi- 
nently introduced or referred to, their Hellenic names are assigned 
to them, yet in the passing allusions made in this poem to the God 
of War or the Goddess of Morning, it was judged more agreeable to 
the general reader to designate those deities by the familiar names 
of Mars and Aurora rather than by the Greek appellations of Ares 
and Eos. Edward Bulwer Lytton. 




He^€CF(eT 



J\ ho¥] TilK 0f J\\kl\Jh 




-^/^^l-p'. 




THE SECRET WAY 



o 



MARTES, King of the wide plains wliich, 



north 



Of Tanais, pasture steeds for Scythian Mars, 
Forsook the simple ways 

And Nomad tents of his unconquered fathers 



And in the fashion of the neighboring Medes, 
Built a great city girt with moat and wall, 
And in the midst thereof 

A regal palace dwarfing piles in Susa, 



1 6 THE SECRET WAY. 

With vast foundations rooted into earth, 
And crested suniniits soaring into Heaven, 
And gates of triple brass, 

Siege-proof as portals welded by the Cyclops. 

One day Omartes, in his pride of heart, 
Led his High Priest, Teleutias, thro' his halls, 
And chilled by frigid looks, 

When counting on warm praise, asked " What 
is wantino- ? 



" Where is beheld the palace of a king. 
So stored with all that doth a king beseem; 
^ The woofs of Phrygian ^^, looms, 
)■ %K The gold of Colchis, /S and the pearls of 



Ormus, 







THE SECRET WAY. 17 

"Couches of ivory sent from farthest IncI, 
Sidonian crystal, and Corinthian bronze, 
Egypt's vast symbol gods, 

And those imagined into men by Hellas ; 

" Stored not in tents that tremble to a gale, 
But chambers firm-based as the Pyramids, 
And breaking into spray 

The surge of Time, as Gades breaks the ocean ? " 



" Nor thou nor I the worth of these thinijs now 
Can judge ; we stand too near them," said the sage. 
None till they reach the tomb 

Scan with just eye the treasures of the palace. 



" But for thy building — as we speak, I feel 
Thro' all the crannies pierce an icy wind 
More bitter than the blasts 

Which howled without the tents of thy rude 
fathers. 



i8 



THE SECRET WAY. 



" Thdu liast forgot to l)icl lh\- masons close 
The chinks of stone against Calamity." 
Tlic sage inclined his brow, 

Sliix'ered, and, })ai"ting, round liim wrapt liis 
mantle. 

The King turned, thoughtful, to a favorite chief, 
The rudest cliampion of the jDolished change 
That fixed the wain-borne homes 

Of the wild Scvthian, and encamj)ed a city; 

" Heard'st thou the Sage, brave Seuthes ? " asked 

the King. 
" Yea, tlie priest deemed thy treasures insecure, 
And fviin would see them safe 

In his (nvn temple." The King smiled on 
Seuthes. 



Ihitii this Scvthian monarch's nuptial bed 
Hut oiie fair girl, Argio[K\ was born : 
Vox \\\\o\w no earthh' throne 

Soared from the level of his fond ambition. 



THE SECRET WAY. 

To her, indeed, had Aphrodite given 
Beauty, that royalty which subjects kings, 
Sweet with unconscious charm, 

And modest as the youngest of the Graces. 



Men blest her when she moved before their eyes 
Shamefaced, as blushinor to be born so fair, 
Mild as that child of o^ods 



Violet-crowned Athens hallowins named 
" Pity." 






Now, of a sudden, over that bright face 
There fell the shadow of some troubled thought, 
As cloud, from purest dews 

Updrawn, makes sorrowful a star in heaven 



And as a nightingale that having heard 
A perfect music from some master's lyre, 
Steals into coverts lone, 

With her own melodies no more contented, 



2 2 THE SECRET WAY. 

But haunted by the strain, till then unknown, 
Seeks to re-sing it back, herself to charm, 
Seeks still and ever fails. 

Missing the key-note which unlocks the music ; 

So, from her former pastimes in the choir 
Of comrade virgins, stole Argiope, 
Lone amid summer leaves 

Brooding that thought, which was her joy and 
trouble. 

The king discerned the change in his fair child, 
And questioned oft, yet could not learn the cause; 
The sunny bridge between 

The Hp and heart which childhood builds was 
broken. 



Not more Aurora, stealing into heaven, 
Conceals the mystic treasures of the deep 
Whence with chaste blush she comes. 

Than virgin bosoms oruard their earliest secret. 



THE SECRET WAY. 



23 



Omartes sought the priest, to whose wise heart 
So dear the maiden, he was wont to say 
That o-rains of crackHna: salt 

From her pure hand, upon the altar sprinkled, 

Sent up a flame to loftier heights in heaven 
Than that which rolled from hecatombs in smoke. 
" King," said the musing seer, 

" Behold, the woodbine, opening infant blossoms, 



" Perfumes the bank whose herbage hems it round 
From its own birthplace drinking in delight ; 

Later, its instinct stirs ; iflk' 

Fain would it climb — to climb forbidden, ,^^ 
creepeth. 







x^mm ^wr 



24 THE SECRET WAY. 

" Its lot obeys its yearning to entwine ; 
.Around the oak it \vea\es a world of fiowers ; 
Or, listless drooping, trails 

Dejected tendrils lost mid weed and brier. 



"There needs no construing to niy parable : 
As is the woodbines, so the woman's life: 
Look round the forest kings, 

And to the stateliest wed thy royal blossom. 



Sharp is a father's pang when comes the hour 
In which his love contents his child no more, 
And the sweet wonted smile 

Fades from his hearthstone to rejoice a 



Hut soon from jiarent love dies thought t)f self; 
Omartes, looking round the Lords of earth, 
In young Zariades 

Singled the worthiest of his peerless daughter; 



THE SECRET WAY. 25 

Scion of that illustrious hcro-stcm, 
Which in great Cyrus bore the h)ftiest ilower 
Purpled by Orient suns ; 

Stretched his vast satrapies, engulfino- king- 
doms, 

From tranquil palmgroves fringing Casjjian waves, 
To the bleak marge of stormy Tanais ; 
On Scythia bordering thus, 

No foe so dread, and no ally so j^otcnt. 

Perilous boundary-rights by Media claimed 
O'er that great stream which, laving Scythian plains, 
Europe from Asia guards. 

The Persian Prince, in wedding Scythia's 
daughter. 



Might well resign, in pledge of lasting peace. 
P>ut ill the })roject of Omartes pleased 
His warlike free-born chiefs. 

And ill the wilder tribes of his fierce people ; 



36 THE SECRE2' WAY. 

For Scyth and Medc had long been as those winds 
Whose \'ery meeting in itself is storm, 
Yet the King's will })re\'ailed, 

Confirmed, when wavering, by his trusted 
Seuthes. 

He, the fierce leader of the fiercest horde, 
Won from the wild by greed of gain and power. 
Stood on the bound between 

Man social and man savage, dark and massive : 

So rugged was he that men deemed him true, 
So secret was he tliat men deemed him wise, 
And lie had grown so great, 

The throne was lost behind the subject's 
shadow. 

In the advice he whispered to the king 
Me laid the key-stone of ambitious hope, 
This marriage with the Mede 

Would leave to heirs remote the Scythian 
kintidom. 



THE SECRET WAY. 27 

Sow in men's minds vague fears of foreign rule, 
Which might, if cultured, spring to armed revolt. 
In armed revolt how oft 

Kings disappear, and none dare call it murder. 

And when a crown falls bloodstained in the dust, 
The strons: man stand inq; nearest to its fall 
Takes it and crowns himself; 

And heirs remote are swept from earth as rebels. 



Of peace and marriage-rites thus dreamed the king; 
Of graves and thrones the traitor ; while the fume 
From altars, loud with prayer 

To speed the Scythian envoys, darkened heaven. 



A hardy prince was young Zariades, 
Scornino- the luxuries of the loose-robed Mede, 
Cast in the antique mould 

Of men whose teaching thewed the soul of 
Cyrus. 



28 THE SECRET WAY. 

" 'Fo ride, to draw the bow, to speak the truth, 
Sufficed to Cyrus," said the prince, when child. 
" Astyages knew more," 

Answered th.e Magi — " Yes, and lost his king- 
doms." 

Yet there was in this prince the eager mind 
Which needs must think, and therefore needs must 
learn ; 
Natures, whose roots strike deep, 

Clear their own way, and win to light in grow- 
ing. 

His that rare beauty wdiich both charms and awes 
The popular eye; his the life-gladdening smile; 
His the death-dooming frown; 

That which he would he could; — men loved 
and feared him. 

Now of a sudden over this grand brow 
There fell the gloom of some unquiet thought, 
As when the south wind sweeps 

Sunshine from Hadria in a noon of summer: 



THE SECRET WAY. 29 

And as a stag, supreme among the herd, 
With lifted crest inhaling lusty air, 
Smit by a shaft from far, 

Deserts his lordly range amidst the pasture, 

And thro' dim woodlands with drooped antlers creeps 
To the cool marge of rush-grown watersprings ; 
So from all former sports, 

Contest, or converse with once-loved com- 
panions, 

Stole the young prince through unfrequented groves. 
To gaze with listless eyes on lonely streams. 
All, wondering, marked the change, 

None dared to question : he had no fond father. 

Now, in the thick of this his altered mood, 
Arrived the envoys of the Scythian king, 
Reluctant audience found. 

And spoke to ears displeased their sovereign's 
message. 



30 THE SECRET WAY 



" Omartes greets Zariades the Mcde 
Between the realms of both there rolls a river 
Inviolate to the Scyth, 

Free to no keels but those the Scythian char- 
ters : 

"Yet have thy subjects outraged oft its waves, 
And pirate foray on our northern banks 
Ravaged the flocks and herds, 

Till Scythian riders ask 'Why sleeps the 
Ruler ? ' 

" Still, loth to fan the sparks which leap to flame 
Reddening the nations, from the breath of kings; 
We have not sought thy throne 

With tales of injury or appeals to justice; 

" But searching in our inmost heart to find 
The gentlest bond wherewith to link our realms. 
Make Scyth and Mede akin, 

By household ties their royal chiefs uniting. 



THE SECRET WAY. 



31 



" We strip our crown of its most precious gem, 
Proffering to thee our child Argiope : 
So let the Median Queen 

Be the mild guardian of the Scythian river.' 



Lifting his brow, replied Zariades: 
" Great rivers are the highways of the world : 
The Tanais laves my shores ; 

For those who dwell upon my shores I claim it. 



" If pirates land on either side for prey, 
My banks grow herdsmen who can guard their herds 
Take, in these words, reply 

To all complaints that threaten 
Median subjects. 




32 



THE SECRET WAV 



" Hut tor the gentler phrase wherewith your king- 
Stoops to a proffer, yet implies coniniand, 
J j)ray nou, in return, 

To give sueh thanks as soften most refusal. 

" Thanks are a language kings are born to hear, 
Hut sj)eak not glibl\' till thev near their fall. 
To guard liis SoNthian realm. 

On the INIede's throne the Scyth would place 
his daughter; 

" 1 should deeei\e him it I said ' Agreed.' 
No tlirone, methinks, hath rcuMU for more than one; 
Where a Queen's lips decide 

Or peace or war, she slays the king her Inis- 
band. 



" Thus thinking, did I wed this Scvthian maid. 
It were no marriage between Mede and Sevth ; 
Nor wrong I unseen charms; 

Love, we are told, comes like the wind from 
lieaxen 



THE SECRK'J' WAY. t^^ 

" Not at our hiddiiiL;, but its own free will. 
And so depart — and jjardon my plain speech. 
That which I ihink 1 say, 

Offending- ofl-linies, but deceiving never." 



So he dismissed them, if witli churlish words. 
With royal ])resents, and to festal j)om]js. 
I kit one, by Median law 

Nearest his throne, the chief i)riest of the Magi, 

Having heard all with not unprescient fears, 
Followed the Prince and urged recall of words 
Which, sent from king to king, 

Are fraught with dragon seeds, whose growth 
is armies. 

Mute, as if musing in himself, the Prince 
Heard the wise counsel to its warning close. 
Then, u'ith a gloomy look, 

Gazed on the reader of the stars, and 
answered — 



34 



Tirr< SECRET WAY. 



" Leave tlKni to nu' that which to mc belongs; 
My people need the Tanais for their rafts; 
Or soon or late that need 

Strings the Mede's bow, and mounts the Scyth- 
ian rider. 



" Mage, I would pluck niv spirit from the hold 
Of a strong phantasy, which, night and day. 
Haunts it, unsinews life. 

And makes mv heart the foe of mv own reason. 



• Perchance in war the gc^ds ordain my cure ; 
And courting war, I to myself give peace." 
Startled by these wild words, 

The Mage, in trust-alluring arts long-practised, 



Led on the Prince to unfold their hidden sense; 
And having bcnmd the listener by the oath 
Mage never broke, to hold 

Sacred the trust, the King thus told his trouble. 



THE SECRET WAY. 37 

" Know that each night (thro' three revolving moons) 
An imao^e comes before me in a dream ; 
Ever the same sweet face, 

Lovely as that which blest the Carian's slum- 
ber.! 

" Nought mid the dark-eyed daughters of the East, 
Nought I have ever seen in waking hours, 
Rivals in charm this shape 

Which hath no life — unless a dream hath sub- 
stance. 

" But never yet so clearly visible, 
Nor with such joy in its celestial smile 
Hath come the visitant. 

Making a temple of the soul it hallows, 

" As in the last night's vision ; there it stooped 
Over my brow, with tresses that I touched. 
With love in bashful eyes, 

With breath whose fragrance lingered yet in 
wakincr. 



38 



THE Si-CKKT WAY 



" And h.ilnuHl the moni, as wlicn a dcn'c, that brings 
i\inl)r()sia to OKnipus, sheds on earth 
Drops from a i)assini;' wing: 

Sureh' the \ision made itself thus hving 



" To test mv boast, that trutli so tills this scnil 
It emild not lodge a falsehood ev'n in dream : 
W'onderest thou, Magian, ntnv. 

Why I refuse towed the Seythian's daughter? 



"And it I thus eontide to thee a tale 
I would \\(A whisper into ears |)rofane, 
'Tis that where reason ends. 

Men ha\e \\v> ehoice between the Gotls and 
Chaos, 



" Ve Magi aiv the readers of the stars, 
X'ersed in the language of the wt)rld ol dreams: 
Wherefore eonsult th\- lore. 

Anil tell me if l^arth hold a iiiortal maiden 



THE SECRET WAY. 39 

" In whom my nit^htly visir)n breathes and moves. 
If not, make mine such taHsmans and spells, 
As banish from the s(>u] 

Dreams that annul its longing for the daylight." 



Up to his lofty fire-tower climbed the Mage, 
Explored the stars and drew Chaldaean schemes; 
Thrid the dark maze of books 

Opening on voids beyond the bounds of 
Nature ; 



Placed crystal globes in hands of infants jnire ; 
Invoked the demons haunting impious graves; 
And all, alas, in vain ; 

The dream, adjured against itself to witness, 



Refused to wander from the gate of horn. 
To stars, scrolls, crystals, infants, demons, proof. 
Foiled of diviner lore 

The Mage resumed his wisdom as a mortal ; 



40 THE SECRET ]VAY. 

And since no Mage can own his science fails, 
Hut where that soK'cs not, still solution frnds, 
So he resought the King, 

Gravc-b rowed as one whose brain holds Fruth 
new-captured : 



Saying, " O King, the shai)e th\' dreams have glassed 
Is of the Colchian Mother of the Mcdes ; 
When, on her draoxin car, 

From faithless jason rose sublime IMedea, 



" Refuge at Athens she with .Kgeus found; 
To him espoused she bore one hero-son, 
Medus, the Sire of Medes ; 

And if that form no earthly shape resemble: 



" What marvel ? for her beautv witched the world, 
li\-'n in an age when woman lured the gods; 
Retaining yet dread powers 

(For memories die not) of her ancient magic, 




IN UKAin ai;ain.st the staks 

THK MAGE KESOUGHT HIS TOWER. 



ill I' shCRi-r II .n 



43 



' I liT .spiiil liiim'i^ ill llifsi- ( )ri('iil .liis, 
And i;ii.ii(ls the ( hildn'ii ol Iut l.ilrsl love, 
Ihiis. lioxniiiL; (t\cr tlu'i", 
Slu' wMiins lli\ lie, 111 U) l()\i' in licr — ihosi' 



" As in hcv prcscnci' tlioii didst (eel th\' soul 
L()diL;i'(l III ,1 (cniplf, s(i llu' ( Jiict'ii loniniands 
'Idl.lt llioli irsloiv the Lines 

And deck tlu' .ill, lis wlicic licr Mcdiis wo 
sliipcd: 

"And in the spiriUhrcilli \vhi( li l).ilincd llu- niorn 
Is s\ inl)o!i/c(l llic incense on oiir sIiiiik's, 
\\ liieh, as I Ik )1I reiidefesl here, 

Sh.ill w.ill lliee aller dealli to the I niinoilals. 



" Sei'k, then, no lalisnian a!.!,ainsl the dream, 
()l)e\' its mandates, and return its lo\'e ; 
So shall th\' i-ei-n he hiest. 

And in Zariades ivvivc a Mediis." 



44 



THE SKCREI WAY. 



1! 



^;.'cv 




-'Si 



Friend, " sighed the Kino-, 
' " albeit I needs 

nuist own 
j All dreams mean temples, where 

a Mage explains, 
', Yet when a young man dreams 

Of decking altars, 'tis not for 
Medea." 



He said and turned to lose himself in groves. 
Shunning the sun. In wiwth against the stars 
The Mage rescnight his tower. 

And that same ilay went back the Scythian 
envoys. 



But from the night which closed upon that day. 
The image of the dream began to fade, 
l^\iiuter anil paler seen. 

With satldened face and outlines veiled i; 
vapor ; 



THE SECRET WAY. 45 

At last it vanished as a lingering star 
Fades on Cithasron from a Mojnad's eyes, 
Mid cymbal, fife and horn, 

When sunrise flashes on the Car of Panthers. 



As the dream fled, broke war upon the land : 
The Scythian hosts had crossed the Tanais. 
And, where the dreamer dreamed, 

An angry King surveyed his Asian armies. 



Who first in fault, the Scythian or the Mede, 
Who first broke compact, or transgressed a bound. 
Historic scrolls dispute 

As Scyth or Mede interprets dreams in story. 



Enough for war when two brave nations touch. 
With rancor simmering in the hearts of kings; 
W^ar is the child of cloud 

Oftentimes stillest just before the thunder. 



46 THE SECRK2' WAY. 

The armies met in that vast plain whereon 
The Chaidee, meting out the earth, became 
The scholar of the stars, — 

A tombless plain, yet has it buried empires. 

At first the Scythian horsemen, right to left. 
Broke wings by native Medes outstretched for 
flight, 
But in the central host 

Stood Persia's sons, the mountain race of 
Cyrus ; 

And in their midst, erect in golden car 
With looks of scorn, Zariades the King; 
And at his trumpet voice 

Steed felt as man that now began the battle. 

" Up, sons of Persia, Median women fly ; 
And leave the field to us whom gods made men : 
The Scythian chases well 

Yon timorous deer; now let him front the 
lions." 



THE SECRET WAY. 47 

He spoke, and light-touched by his charioteer 
Rushed his white steeds down the quick-parted 
Hnes ; 
The parted Hnes quick-closed, 

Following that car as after lightning follow 

The hail and whirlwind of collected storm : 
The Scyths had scattered their own force in chase, 
As torrents split in rills 

The giant waves whose gathered might were 
deluee ; 



And, as the Scythian strength is in the charge 
Of its fierce riders, so that charge, misspent, 
Left weak the ignobler ranks. 

Fighting on foot ; alert in raid or skirmish, 

And skilled in weapons striking foes from far. 
But all untaught to front with levelled spears. 
And rampart line of shields. 

The serried onslaught of converging battle 



48 THE SECRET WAY. 

Wavering, recoiling, turning oft, tlicy tied; 
Omartes was not with them to uphold ; 
Foremost himself had rode 

Heading the charge by which the Medes were 
scattered ; 

And when, believing victory won, he turned 
His bloody reins back to the central war. 
Behold, — a cloud of dust, 

And thro' the cloud the ruins of an army! 

At sunset, sole king on that plain, reigned Death. 
Far off, the dust-cloud rolled ; far off, behind 
A dust-cloud followed fast ; 

The hunted and the hunter, Flioht and 
Havoc. 

With the scant remnant of his mighty host 
(Many who 'scaped the foe forsook their chief 
For })lains more safe than walls). 

The Scythian King repassed his brazen 
portals. 



THE SECRET WAY. 



SI 



In haste he sent to gather fresh recruits 
Among the fiercest tribes his fathers ruled, 
They whom a woman led 

When to her feet they tossed the head of 
Cyrus. 

And the tribes answered — " Let the Scythian King 
Return repentant to old Scythian ways, 
And laugh with us at foes. 

Wains know no sieges — Freedom moves her 
cities." 

Soon came the Victor with his Persian guards. 
And all the rallied vengeance of his Medes ; 
One night, sprang up dread camps 

With lurid watch-lights circlino- doomed ram- 
parts. 

As hunters round the wild beasts in their lair 
Marked for the javelin, wind a belt of fire. 
Omartes scanned his walls 

And said, " Ten years Troy baffled Agamem- 
non." 



52 THE SECRET WAY. 

Yet pile up walls, c)ut-t()pj)ing IJabylon, 
Manned foot by foot with sleepless sentinels, 
And to and fro will pass, 

Free as the air thro' keyholes, Love and 
Treason. 

Be elsewhere told the horrors of that siege, 
The desperate sally, slaughter and repulse ; 
Repelled in turn the foe, 

With Titan ladders scaling cloud-capt bul- 
warks, 

Hurled back and buried under rocks heaved down 
By wrathful hands from scatheless battlements. 
With words of holy charm, 

Soothing despair and leaving resignation, 

Mild thro' the city moved Argiope, 
Pale with a sorrow too divine for fear; 
And when, at morn and eve. 

She bowed her meek head to her father's 
blessinij. 




COULD DOOM NO ALTERS AT WHOSE FOOT SHE PRAYED. 



THE SECRET WAY. 55 

Omartes felt as if the righteous gods 
Could doom no altars at whose foot she prayed. 
Only, when all alone, 

Stole from her lips a murmur like complaint, 

Shaped in these words : " Wert thou, then, but a 

dream ? 
Or shall I see thee in the Happy Fields? " 
Now came with stony eye 

The livid vanquisher of cities, Famine; 

And moved to pity now, the Persian sent 
Heralds with proffered peace on terms that seem 
Gentle to Asian kings. 

And unendurable to Europe's Freemen; 

" I from thy city will withdraw my hosts, 
And leave thy people to their chiefs and laws, 
Taking from all thy realm 

Naught save the river, which I make my 
border, 



56 THE SECRET WAY. 

" If but, in homage to my sovereign throne, 
Thou pay this petty tribute once a year ; 
Six grains of Scythian soil, 

One urn of water spared from Scythian 
fountains." 

And the Scyth answered — " Let the Mede demand 
That which is mine to give, or gold or life; 
The water and the soil 

Are, every grain and every drop, my country's : 

" And no mail hath a country where a King 
Pays tribute to another for his crown." 

h And at this stern reply, 

!| The Persian doomed to fire and sword the 



!! 




city. 



Omartes stood within his palace hall, 
And by his side Teleutias, the high priest. 
" And rightly," said the King, 

" Did thy prophetic mind rebuke vain- 
glory. 

if 



THE SECRET WAY. 57 

" Lend me thy mantle now ; I feel the wind 
Pierce through the crannies of the thick-ribbed 
stone." 
" No wind lasts long," replied, 

With soothing voice, the hierarch. " Calm 
and tempest 

" Follow each other in the outward world, 
And joy and sorrow in the heart of man : 
Wherefore take comfort now, 

The earth and water of the Scyth are grateful, 

"And as thou hast, inviolate to the Scyth, 
His country saved, that country yet to thee 
Stretches out chainless arms. 

And for these walls gives plains that mock 
besiegers, 

" Traversed by no invader save the storm. 
Nor girt by watchfires nearer than the stars. 
Beneath these reo^al halls 

Know that there lies a road which leads to 
safety. 



58 THE SECRET WAY. 

" For, not unj^rcscicnt of the present ills, 
When rose thy towers, the neighbors of the cloud, 
I, like the mole, beneath, 

\\\irk'd path secure against cloud-riving 
thunder. 

'" Employing /Itthiops skilled not in our tongue. 
Held day and night in the dark pass they hewed ; 
And the work done, sent home : 

So the dumb earthworm shares alone the 
secret. 

" Lo, upon one side ends the unguessed road. 
There, its door panelled in yon far recess, 
Where, on u^reat days of state, 

Oft has thy throne been set beneath the 
pur})le ; 

" The outward issue opes beyond the camp, 
'Mid funeral earth-mounds. | skirting widths of 
plain, 
Where graze the fleetest steeds. 

And rove the bravest riders Scvthia nurtures — 



THE SECRET WAY. 59 

" They whom thou ne'er couldst lure to walls of 

stone, 
Nor rouse to war, save for their own free soil. 
These gained, defy the foe ; 

Let him pursue, and space itself engulfs him." 



Omartes answered — " With the towers I built 
Must I, O kind adviser, stand or fall. 
Kings are not merely men — 

Epochs their lives, their actions the w^orld's 
story. 

" I sought to wean my people from the . ijii^ 

wild. 
To center scattered valors, wasted " ' "^'^^^^^ 

thoughts, y 

Into one mind, a State; /"" '^^ 



Failing in this, my life as kin 
has perished ; 




6o THE SECRET WAY. 

" And as mere man I should disdain to live. 
Deemest thou now I could go back content 
A Scyth among the Scyths ? 

I am no eaglet — I have borne the ^gis. 

" But life, as life, suffices youth for joy. 
Young plants win sunbeams, shift them as we may. 
So to the Nomad tribes 

Lead thou their Queen. — O save, ye gods, my 
daughter ! " 

The king's proud head bowed o'er the hierarch's 
breast. 
" Not unto me confide that precious charge," 
Replied the sweet-voiced seer ; 

" Thou hast a choice of flight. I none. Thou 
choosest 

" To stand or fall, as stand or fall thy towers ; 
Priests may not choose ; they stand or fall by 
shrines. 
Thus stand we both, or fall, 

Thou bv the throne, and I beside the altar. 



THE SECRET WAY. 6i 

" But to thy child, ev'n in this funeral hoiu", 
Give the sole lawful guardian failing thee ; 
Let her free will elect 

From thy brave warriors him her heart most 
leans to ; 

" And pass with him along the secret way, 
To lengthen yet the line of Scythian Kings. 
Meanwhile, since needs must be 

We trust to others this long-guarded secret, 



" Choose one to whom I may impart the clue 
Of the dark labyrinth ; for a guide it needs ; 
Be he in war well tried, 
And of high 

Nomad riders 



mark among the 



" Such as may say unto the antique tribes 
With voice of one reared up among them- 
selves, 
' From walls of stone I bring 

Your King's child to your tents; let 
Scythia guard hen' 





62 THE SECRET WAY. 

"Well do thy counsels please me,"' said the King. 
"I will convene to such j)cnurious feast 
As stint permits, the chiefs 

Worthiest to be the sires of warlike monarchs : 

" And, following ancient custom with the Scyths, 
He unto whom my daughter, with free choice, 
The wine-cup brimming gives, 

Shall take my blessing and go hence her hus- 
band. 

" But since, for guide and leader of the few 
That for such service are most keen and apt. 
The man in war most tried, 

And with the Nomads most esteemed, is 
Seuthes, 

" Him to thy skilled instructions and full trust 
Will I send straight. Meanwhile go seek my 
child, 
And, as to her all thought 

Of her own safety in mine hour of peril 



THE SECRET WAY, 63 

" Will in itself be hateful, use the force 
That dwells on sacred lips with blandest art ; 
Say that her presence here 

Palsies mine arm and dulls my brain with 
terror ; 

" That mine own safety I consult in hers, 
And let her hopeful think, that, tho' we part. 
The same road opes for both ; 

And if walls fail me, hers will be my refuge." 

Omartes spoke, and of his stalwart chiefs 
Selecting all the bravest yet unwived, 
He bade them to his board 

The following night, on matters of grave 
import ; 

To Seuthes then the secret he disclosed, 
And Seuthes sought the hierarch, conned the clue. 
And thrid the darksome maze 

To either issue, sepulchre and palace ; 



64 THE SECRET WAY. 

And thus instructed, treasure, town, and king 
Thus in liis hands for bargain with the foe, 
The treason schemed of yore, 

Foiled when the Mede rejected Scythian 
nuptials. 

Yet oft revolved — as some pale hope deferred. 
Seen indistinct in rearward depths of time — 
Flashed as, when looked for least, 

Thro' the rent cloud of battle flashes triumph. 

And, reasoning with himself, " the Mede," he said, 
" Recks not who sits upon the Scythian throne, 
So that the ruler pay 

Grains of waste soil and drops of useless 
water : 

" And if I render up an easy prey 
The senseless king refusing terms so mild, 
For such great service done 

And for my rank among the Scythian riders, 



THE SECRET WAY. 67 

" The Mede would deem no man so fit as I 
To fill the throne, whose heir he scorned as wife, 
And yield him dust and drops, 

Holdincr the realms and treasures of Omartes." 



So, when the next day's sun began to slope, 
The traitor stood before Zariades, 
Gaining the hostile camp 

From the mute grave-mound of his Scythian 
fathers. 



Plain as his simplest soldier's was the tent 
Wherein the lord of half the Orient sate. 
Alone in anxious thought. 

Intent on new device to quicken conquest. 



But for the single sapphire in his helm, 
And near his hand the regal silver urn. 
Filled with the sparkling lymph. 

Which, whatsoe'er the distance, pure Choaspes 



68 THE SECRET WAY. 

Sends to the lips of Achci:menian kings, § 
The Asian ruler might to Spartan eyes 
Have seemed the hardy type 

Of Europe's manhood crowned in Laceda^mon. 



The traitor, sure of welcome, told his tale. 
Proffered the treason and implied the terms. 
Then spoke Zariades ; 

" Know that all kings regard as foe in common 



" The man w'ho is a traitor to his king. 
'Tis true that I thy treason must accept. 
I owe it to my hosts 

To scorn no means, destroying their destroyer 



" But I will place no traitor on a throne. 
Yet, since thy treason saves me many lives, 
I for their sake spare thine: 

And since thy deed degrades thee from the 
freeman. 



THE SECRET WAY. 69 

" I add to life what slaves most covet — gold : 
Thy service done, seek lands where gold is king; 
And, tho' thyself a slave, 

Buy freemen vile eno' to call thee master. 

" But if thy promise fail, thy word ensnare, 
Thy guidance blunder, by thy side stalks death. 
Death does not scare the man 

Who, like thyself, has looked on it in battle ; 

" But death in battle has a warrior's grave ; 
A traitor dead — the vultures and the dogs." 
Then to close guard the King 

Consigned the Scyth, who for the first time 
trembled ; 



And called in haste, and armed his Sacred Band, 
The Persian flower of all his Orient hosts ; 
And soon in that dark pass 

Marched war, led under rampired walls by 
treason. 



70 



THE SECRET WAY. 



Safe tliro' the fatal maze the Persians reached 
Stairs windini; upward into palace halls. 
With stealthy hand the guide 

Pressed on the spring of the concealed portal. 

And slowly opening, peered within : the space 
Stood void; for so it had been planned, that none 
Might, when the hour arrived, 

Obstruct the spot at which escape should 
vanish: 

But farther on, voices were heard confused. 
And lights shone faintly thro" the chinks of doors. 
Where one less spacious hall 

Led, also void, to that of fated banquet. 

Curious, and yielding to his own bold heart. 
As line on line came, steel-clad, from the wall, 
Flooding funereal floors, 

The young King whispered, " Here await my 
siirnal," 



THE SECRET WAY. 



71 



And stole along the intervening space, 
At whose far end, curtains of Lydian woof, 
Between vast columns drawn, 

Fell in thick folds, at either end disparting: 







000 
o 







He looked within, unseen ; all eyes were turned 
Towards a pale front, just risen o'er the guests. 
In which the Persian knew 

His brother King; it was not pale in battle. 



72 



THE SECRET WAY. 



And thus Omartes spoke : " Captains and sons 
Of the same mother, Scythia, to this feast, 
Which in such straits of want 

Needs strong excuse, not idly are ye sum- 
moned. 

" Wishing the Hne of kings from which I spring 
Yet to extend, perchance, to happier times, 
And save mine only child 

From death, or, worse than death, the Median 
bondage, 

" I would this night betroth her as a bride 
To him amongst you wh.om herself shall choose ; 
And the benignant gods 

Have, thro' the wisdom of their sacred augur, 

"Shown me the means which may elude the foe, 
And lead the two that in themselves unite 
The valor and the sway 

Of Scythia, where her plains defy besiegers. 



THE SECRET WAY. 73 

" If the gods bless the escape they thus permit, 
Braved first, as fitting, by a child of kings. 
Then the same means will free 

Flight for all those who give to siege its 
terror; 

"Women and infants, wounded men and old, 
If few by few, yet night by night, sent forth, 
Will leave no pang in death 

To those reserved to join the souls of heroes." 

As, in the hush of eve, a sudden wind 
Thrills thro' a grove and bows the crest of pines. 
So crept a murmured hum 

Thro' the grave banquet, and plumed heads 
bent downward: 

Till hushed each whisper, and upraised each eye. 
As from a door behind the royal dais 
Into the conclave came 

The priest Teleutias leading the King's 
daughter. 



74 THE SECRET WAY. 

" Lift up ihy veil, my child, Argiopc,*' 
Oniartt's said. "And look arouiKl the board, 
And from yon beakers fill 

The cuj) I kiss as in thy hand I place it. 

" And whosoever from that hand receives 
The cup, shall be thy husband and my son." 
The virgin raised her veil; 

Shone on the hall the starlight of her beauty. 

But to no face amid the breathless guests 
Turned downcast lids from which the tears dropped 
slow: 
Passive she took the cup, 

With passive step led by the whispering augur 

Where, blazing luster back upon the lamps, 
Stood golden beakers under purple pall. 
" Courage," said low the priest ; 

" So may the gods, for thy sake, save thy 
father ! " 




ON BENDED KNEES SUNK DOWN. 



THE SECRET WAY. 



77 



She shivered as he spoke, but, lips firm-prest 
Imprisoning all the anguish at her heart, 
She filled the fatal cup. 

Raised her sad eyes, and vaguely gazed around 
her. 

Sudden those eyes took light and joy and soul, 
Sudden from neck to temples flushed the rose, 
And with quick, gliding steps. 

And the strange looks of one who walks in 
slumber, 

She passed along the floors, and stooped above 
A form, that, as she neared, with arms outstretched, 
On bended knees sunk down 

And took the wine-cup with a hand that 
trembled : 

A form of youth — and nobly beautiful 
As Dorian models for Ionian gods. 
" Again ! " it murmured low; 

" O dream, at last ! at last ! how I have missed 
thee ! " 



78 THE SECRET WAY. 

And she replied, " The gods are merciful, 
Keeping me true to thee when I despaired." 
But now rose every guest, 

Rose every voice in anger and in terror; 

For lo, the kneeler lifted over all 
The front of him their best had fled before — 
"Zariades the Mede ! " 

Rang from each lip : from each sheath flashed 
the saber. 

Thrice stamped the Persian's foot : to the first 

sound 
Ten thousand bucklers echoed back a clang; 
The next, and the huge walls 

Shook with the war-shout of ten thousand 
voices ; 

The third, and as between divided cloud 
Flames fierce with deathful pest an angry sun. 
The folds, flung rudely back. 

Disclosed behind one glare of serried armor. 



THE SECRET WAY. 79 

On either side, the Persian or the Scyth, 
The single lord of life and death to both, 
Stayed, by a look, vain strife; 

And passing onward amid swords uplifted, 



A girl's slight form beside him his sole guard. 
He paused before the footstool of the King, 
And in such tones as soothe 

The wrath of injured fathers, said submissive — 



" I have been guilty to the gods and thee 
Of man's most sinful sin — ingratitude; 
That which I pined for most 

Seen as a dream, my waking life rejected 



" Now on my knees that blessing I implore. 
Give me thy daughter ; but a son receive, 
And blend them both in one 

As the mild guardian of the Scythian River. 







m 



NOTES. 



* " In the market-place of the Athenians is an altar of Pity, which divinity, as she is, 
above all others, beneficent to hnman life and to the mutability of human affairs, is alone of 
all the Greeks reverenced by the Athenians." — Pausanias; Attics, c. xvii. 



t The reader will have the kindness to remember in this and a subsequent allusion by Zaria- 
des to Greek legend, that the narrative is supposed to be borrowed from a Milesian tale-teller, 
who would certainly not have entertained the same scruple as a modern novelist in assigning 
familiarity with Hellenic myths to a Persian prince. 



t The numerous earth-mounds or tumuli found in the steppes now peopled by the Cossacks 
of the Don are generally supposed to be the memorials of an extinct race akin to, if not 
identical with, the ancient Scythian. 



§ The license of romantic fable, wliich has already elevated Zariades from the rank of satrap 
to that of a sovereign prince, here assigns to him, as an Achsmenian, a share in the sacred 
waters of Choaspes, which were transmitted exclusively to the head of that family, viz. the 
Persian King. 




APPENDIX. 




ILETUS — home of Thales and Cadmus, of Anaxi- 
mander and of Hecataeus, the old Carian 



As^s^- city that the Greek sailors and merchants 
— -^^r^^^j^"^ ' raised to so great power and wealth as 
to make it, five hundred years before 
Christ, the greatest of Grecian cities, was at an early day the 
seat of that literature and culture that made Greece the center 
of ancient learning. The glory of old has long since departed ; 
the ancient city on the Maeander is to-day worse than a ruin ; 
even its very site is now a marsh. But the strength and beauty, 
the grace and glory of its old-time culture are imperishable. 
They live in epic and lyric, in song and story even to these 
later days, and the reign of the scholar is endless. 

Filtered through the ages, told and re-told by Pausanias and 
Atheneeus, by Photius and Aristides and even by that Par- 
thenius Nicenus who taught Virgil Greek these " merry tales" of 
Antonius Diogenes which were such favorites with the Syba- 
rites of old live again for us in the " love-stories " dedicated 
by their collecter to the Latin poet Cornelius Gallus, and in the 
best eight of these caught up and put into rhythm for English 
readers by that greatest of modern romancists the brilliant 
English novelist Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. 

Collected by Bulwer under the general title, "The Lost 
Tales of Miletus," the best of those old stories of the luxury- 
living Milesians have appeared in English dress; and "The 



84 APPENDIX. 

Secret Way," the one here presented with the additional l)eauty 
given to it by the pencil of the artist, has been selected as 
the first and the best of the eight tales translated more than 
twenty years ago by the English story-teller. 

In his preface to his volume, first published in 1865, Bulwer 
presented a long and scholarly " apology " for his work. From 
this is now taken the following extract, as showing the nature 
of the " lost tales " and the character of the English translator's 
work : 

" Time has spared no remains, in their original form, of those famous 
Tales of Miletus, which are generally considered to be the remote progen- 
itors of the modern Novel. The strongest presumption in favor of their 
merit rests on the evidence of the popularity they enjoyed both among 
Greeks and Romans in times when the imaginative literature of either peo- 
ple was at its highest point of cultivation. As to the materials which they 
employed for interest or amusement, we are not without means of reason- 
able conjecture. Parthenius, a poet, probably of Nicasa (though his birth- 
place has been called in dispute), who enjoyed a considerable reputation in 
the Augustan Age, and had the honor to teach Virgil Greek, has be- 
queathed to us a collection of short love-stories compiled from older and 
more elaborate legends. In making this collection he could scarcely fail to 
have had recourse to sources so popular as the fictions of Miletus. What 
ever might have been the gifts of I'arthenius as a poet, he wastes none of 
them on his task of compiler. He contents himself with giving the briefest 
possible outline of stories that were then in popular circulation, carefully 
divesting them of any ornament of fancy or elegance of style. His work, 
dedicated to the Latin poet, Gallus, seems designed to suggest, from the 
themes illustrated by old tale-tellers, hints to the imitation or invention of 
later poets. And, indeed, Parthenius himself states that it was for such 
uses to Gallus that his book was composed. 

" Out of such indications of the character and genius of the lost Milesian 
Fables, and from the remnants of myth and tale once ni popular favor, 
which may be found, not only in such repertories of ancient legend as those 



APPENDIX. 85 

of Apollodorus and Conon, but scattered throughout the Scholiasts or in 
the pages of Pausanias and Athenaeus, I have endeavored to weave together 
a few stories that may serve as feeble specimens of the various kinds of 
subject in which these ancestral tale-tellers may have exercised their fac- 
ulties of invention. I have selected from Hellenic myths those in which 
the ground is not preoccupied, by the great poets of antiquity, in works yet 
extant ; and which, therefore, may not be without the attraction of novelty 
to the general reader. 

" I must add a few words as to the form in which these narratives are 
cast. Although it is clear that the Milesian Tales were for the most part 
told in prose, yet it appears that Aristides, the most distinguished author 
of those tales whose name has come down to us, told at least some of his 
stories in verse. The myths I have selected are essentially poetic, and 
almost necessarily demand that license for fancy to which the employment 
of rhythm allures the sanction of the reader, while it obtains his more duc- 
tile assent to the machinery and illusions of a class of fiction associated in 
his mind not with novelists, but poets. 

" I have therefore adopted for the stories forms of poetic rhythm ; and 
the character of the subjects treated seemed to me favorable for an experi- 
ment which I have long cherished a desire to adventure, namely, that of 
new combinations of blank or rhymeless meter, composed not in lines of 
arbitrary length and modulation (of which we have a few illustrious exam- 
ples), but in the regularity and compactness of uniform stanza, constructed 
upon principles of rhythm very simple in themselves, but which, so far as I 
am aware, have not been hitherto adopted, at least for narrative 
purposes. 

"It maybe asked why in departing from the usual mechanism of our 
rhymeless metre, and acknowledging some obligation to classic rhythm, I 
did not resort to the forms of hexameter, or alternate hexameter and panta- 
meter ; for the adoption of which I might have sheltered myself behind the 
authority of writers so eminent, whether in the English language or the 
German. Certainly I do not share in the objections which some critics of 
no mean rank have made to the adaptation of those measures to modern 
languages in which it is impossible to preserve the laws of quantity that 
associations derived from the originals are said, I think erroneously, to de- 



86 APPENDIX. 

mand. For certain kinds of poetry, the hexameter especially seems to me 
admirably suited when in the hands of a master. The time has not, per 
haps, yet come to decide the dispute whether ' Evangeline ' would have 
gained or lost in beauty had it been composed in a different measure, 
but most men of taste who have read the ' Herman and Dorothea ' of Goethe 
will allow, that in any other meter the poem could scarcely have had the 
same patriarchal charm, and no man of taste who has read the noble trans- 
lation of that poem by Dr. Whewell will venture to assert that in any other 
meter the spirit of the original could have been as faithfully preserved. Ihit 
neither the hexameter nor the alternate hexameter and pantameter would 
be appropriate to my mode of treating these stories, in which, for the most 
part, I have sought to bring out dramatic rather than epic or elegiac ele- 
ments of interest, not without aim at that lyrical brevity and compression 
of incident and description which is less easily attainable in the meters 
referred to than in composite measures of shorter compass and more varied 
ccesura. And for the rest, my object has been, not to attempt that which 
has been already done far better than I could hope to do it, but rather to 
suggest new combinations of sound in our native language without inviting 
any comparison with rhythms in the dead languages, from which hints for 
measures purely English have, indeed, been borrowed, but of which direct 
imitation has been carefully shunned." 




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